List of audiovisual entertainment affected by the September 11 attacks

Television coverage

Television coverage of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and their aftermath was the longest uninterrupted news event in the history of U.S. television. The major U.S. broadcast and cable networks were on the air for days with uninterrupted coverage from the moment news first came that the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Millions of shocked television viewers watching live pictures of the World Trade Center saw the second plane hit and both buildings come down. In order to keep up with the constant flood of information, at 10.49 a.m., the Fox News Channel began running continuous updates in the form of a news ticker that crawled along the bottom of the screen. This was so well received by viewers that it became a permanent feature on the channel and was adopted by many other news channels.

During 9/11 itself, and in the days following, news broadcasters scrambled to report accurate information. Occasionally erroneous information was broadcast. An examination of CNN's coverage of 9/11 (which was replayed online, virtually in its entirety, on the fifth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2006) reveals that following the attack on the Pentagon, CNN also reported a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall and that a car bomb had exploded in front of the State Department. It also broadcast an interview with a witness to the Pentagon attack who said it was a helicopter that hit the building, not a plane. CNN was not alone in airing these or similar inaccurate reports, as subsequent examination of coverage by other networks has shown.

For the first time since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the television networks announced that there would be no commercials or entertainment programs for an indefinite time several hours after the attacks, because of the feelings of a shocked nation. It was also felt that it was not a time for "fun and entertainment" when so much death and destruction was being seen live on television. The coverage lasted for 93 hours, day and night.

Use of pictures

The television coverage had far more traumatic effects on children. When asked for her thoughts on the attacks, First LadyLaura Bush responded with a very strong warning to parents: don't let your children see the pictures over and over, especially your young children, but even elementary school-aged children shouldn't be watching it all the time. She felt it was too frightening for them and warned that parents turn off the television so that children do not see the replays over and over again. She gave the very strong warning based on how children reacted to the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995. As it turns out, TV networks stopped airing the footage for the most part within a month of the attacks; one news executive told Us magazine that such showings were now more sensational than relevant.

Long-term television and radio transmitter damage in New York City

The transmitter facilities of WPIX as well as six other New York City television stations and several radio stations were destroyed as the WTC collapsed. WPIX's satellite feed froze on the last image received from the WTC mast; the image remained on the screen for much of the day, broadcasting continent-wide, until WPIX was able to set up alternate transmission facilities.
Several weeks remained before adequate analog broadcast transmissions resumed.

Movies

Numerous movies were cancelled that were in production, and many movies were edited. The most common way of editing was to delete or obscure shots of the World Trade Center. There were various reasons given for the alterations, including keeping material up-to-date, as a gesture of respect for those who died, and to avoid trauma for those emotionally affected by the attack. There are also many movies which notably did not edit their films.

In all, roughly 45 films were edited or postponed because of the 9/11 attacks.

Edited movies

Trailers for the movie Spider-Man were edited so a scene (not in the movie) showing Spider Man capturing a helicopter between the towers was deleted. In the actual movie, a shot of the World Trade Center was deleted. The scene of Spider-Man hanging onto a flagpole with a large American Flag, seen in later trailers and at the end of the film, was added in response to the attacks.

The ending to the 2002 animated movie Lilo and Stitch was edited from Stitch taking a 747 on a joyride and swerving around buildings, to Stitch taking a spaceship on a joyride and swerving around mountains. The original ending was included on the Masterpiece/Special edition DVD.

The action/psychological thriller The Bourne Identity had to be greatly edited due to the involvement of terrorism in the storyline. On the special edition DVD are descriptions of how and why the movie was changed.

Early versions of The Incredibles featured a scene where a frustrated Mr. Incredible vents his emotions on an abandoned building, but ends up accidentally damaging a neighboring building as well. This was considered too reminiscent of the World Trade Center collapse, and was replaced with a scene where Mr. Incredible and Frozone rescue trapped civilians from a burning building.

Internet

Most mainstream news sites were deluged with traffic on September 11th as users sought out information on the attacks. As a result many sites had to radically alter their layouts. Partly this was done to provide the most efficient means to inform the reader. Emphasis was placed on showing the chronology of the attacks, list statements by President George W. Bush and others, and to give updates to federal closers and responses. All other news stories and sections that once appeared on the sites were temporarily removed as they were irrelevant and most likely not wanted by the reader given the gravity of the 9/11 story. These changes may also have been done to reduce the bandwidth needed to load a page. CNN.com and MSNBC.com all but removed the photos, video, or audio features once heavily featured as a means to cope with the extreme traffic demands placed on their servers. Ads were also largely removed out of respect of the attacks and as a further means to reduce bandwidth demands.

Over time the news sites returned to a state of normality. However most would feature devoted sections and boxes on their homepages dedicated to news relating to the attacks and the resulting War on Terror.

Television Programming

In the United States, the start of the 2001-2002 television season was put on hold due to the extensive news coverage (several series, such as NBC's Crossing Jordan, were originally scheduled to debut on September 11), with mid-September premieres delayed until later in the month. Late night talk shows such as The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman were also off the air. Even after regular programming resumed, several talk shows remained off the air for several more days as writers and hosts determined how best to approach the sensitive situation. David Letterman was quoted on CNN as questioning whether he would even continue hosting his show. Ultimately, Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and other talk show hosts based in New York and Los Angeles returned to the airwaves with emotional initial broadcasts, with Letterman breaking network language guidelines by asking his audience how the attacks "made any goddamn sense."

Several TV series, most notably The West Wing and Third Watch, produced special episodes addressing the attacks. Law & Order began its fall season premiere with a tribute to the victims. Shows such as JAG and New York-based Third Watch made major changes to their ongoing storylines in order to incorporate the event's aftermath.

Controversial comments regarding the attacks on Politically Incorrect were directly responsible for that show's cancellation in 2002.

The "Road to Rhode Island" episode of Family Guy originally featured a scene where Stewie Griffin does a song and dance in order to distract airport security from finding weapons in his bag. Osama bin Laden is seen doing the same thing. This scene was edited out of a 2002 FOX rerun, as well as the original Volume 1 DVD release, though it was included in a 2004 release.

On the TV series Friends, in episode 8x03 ("The One Where Rachel Tells..."), Chandler and Monica couldn't get on their flight for their honeymoon because Chandler joked about bombing in the airport. After the attacks, the story was rewritten and re-shot.

In Japan, the premiere of the anime series Full Metal Panic! was delayed due to a terrorist plane hijacking being an integral part of the first major plot arc.

New material was quickly added to Sesame Street following the attacks addressing issues raised. The first episode of the season involved a fire at a Sesame Street cafe which traumatised Elmo until he meets some real life firefighters. Big Bird has to deal with his pen pal Gulliver, who does not believe birds should be friendly to other species.

On Cartoon Network, the 22nd episode of the anime Cowboy Bebop was skipped because it features a terrorist bomber. Coincidentally, the buildings he was attempting to destroy in the episode strongly resembled the Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, 2001. This episode has since entered normal rotation after the show's first run. Despite not airing the episode, the preview footage - which included the offending scene - was shown.

The producers of the show Futurama changed the show's opening by leaving out the part in which the Planet Express ship crashes into a giant TV screen. A few months later the scene was put back into the show's opening, except on the East Coast, where the edited opening sequence was kept until early April 2002.

The cartoon Invader Zim had a scene of the destruction of New York City in the episode "Door to Door," which was replaced with an alternate scene depicting monsters rampaging around the series' normal suburban setting.

An episode of the game show Jeopardy! which aired in November 2001 featured footage of The Pentagon; at the next regularly scheduled break, host Alex Trebek explained to viewers the episode had been filmed prior to September 11. Jeopardy! champion Kevin Laude's one win, slated to air September 11, never aired in its run in most of the country, until it reran on GSN for the first time in June 2005.

Before 9/11, the syndicated version of the Married... with Children episode "Get Outta Dodge featured a scene of two Arabs with a ticking bomb at the front door of Al Bundy's house offering to buy his Dodge for $40 and asking for directions to the Sears Tower. The scene was cut from the syndicated re-airings of the episode after 9/11.

An episode of Neighbours due to be shown that week, was edited because it featured a scene of a carjacking.

The opening credits of Sex and the City episodes that aired after 9/11 were modified. Two shots of the World Trade Center were replaced: the skyline shot behind the show's title was replaced with an image from a different perspective, and the shot behind Sarah Jessica Parker's name in the credits was replaced with one of the Empire State Building. According to DVD commentary by Michael Patrick King, the first episode using this edited credit sequence, "The Good Fight," also had a scene of the World Trade Center digitally removed before broadcast; the affected scene was of characters played by Kim Cattrall and James Remar dancing in their bathrobes besides an outdoor pool.

An episode of The Simpsons entitled '"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," which was partially set at the World Trade Center, was pulled from syndication by some carriers, though many are now showing it again. Some individual carriers have removed World Trade Center scenes on their own, while the distributor of The Simpsons still releases the episode in full for syndication.

In the title sequence of The Sopranos, an image of the World Trade Center towers could be seen in Tony Soprano's rear view mirror. Just prior to the start of the fourth season in September 2002, producer David Chase removed this cut altogether.

SpongeBob SquarePants edited a scene from the episode called "Just One Bite because it features a lit match and a bucket of gas being in contact, causing The Krusty Krab to explode and burn.

Several episodes of Transformers: Robots in Disguise were edited or removed from the air. Three episodes were never aired in the United States, as they featured buildings being destroyed (indeed, the primary plot point of one episode was evacuating humans from a collapsing building). Others were edited to remove explosions in buildings or references to terrorism.

The pilot for the first season of 24 was postponed from October to November. It included a scene of a terrorist parachuting out of an exploding plane. The scene was later altered so that the explosion itself would not be seen. A scene of a plane blowing up was removed.

An episode of WWF SmackDown! due to be taped on 9/11 in Houston, Texas was instead broadcast live on September 13. The show began with an introduction by Vince McMahon who dedicated the show to the memories of those who died and was followed by the full roster coming out for the national anthem. Throughout the show various wrestlers talked about the events two days before. WWF's other main brand, WWE Raw, dropped its RAW is WAR slogan. As well, the PPV WWE Armageddon had it's name changed to WWE Vengeance three months later (though the company would bring the name back a year later).

In the week following the attacks, ESPN's SportsCenter did continue to air at its normal times (as it has every day since its inception in 1979), after ESPN finished showing ABC News coverage. However, as all major sports events that week were cancelled or postponed, the show was reformatted to focus on news regarding the attacks, their aftermath, and their effects on sports and athletes.

The Price Is Right debuted a CBS primetime version of the daytime classic in 2002, the first of which aired before the 2002 Daytime Emmy Awards, commemorating a different branch of the Armed Forces, and concluding with a Police and Firefighters special, with the NYPD and FDNY represented among other public safety officers on the episode. Officially, these episodes were declared #001S to #006S. The success of these summer original episodes led to the contiunation of the series as the Million Dollar Spectacular, which officially started at #007S. Both are officially one series for the record books on the show.

"The Rats" a made for television movie about large numbers of rats wreaking havok Manhattan, was originally slated to air in September 2001. The movie was finally aired a year later on September 17, 2002.

Radio

XM Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service headquartered in Washington, DC, was scheduled to launch on September 12, 2001. As a direct result of the attacks, the launch was delayed until September 25, when the service debuted on a limited basis in San Diego, CA and Dallas, TX.

Program directors from a number of radio stations throughout the US retooled their playlists in response to the attacks. Common changes included the heavy rotation of songs such as "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood and Whitney Houston's rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. Meanwhile, songs such as U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," and "Crash Into Me" by the Dave Matthews Band were commonly deleted. Additionally, Clear Channel came under scrutiny for distributing a list of 150 potentially sensitive songs that were not recommended for broadcast immediately after the attacks.

Theme parks

The Walt Disney World attraction The Timekeeper, a 360-degree film presentation that features a panoramic view of New York City, including the Twin Towers, closed on September 11, 2001 and updated the scene of New York City without the Twin Towers or the WTC site (a digitally-created fictitious large park is in its place). The film later closed.

Video games

The video game Grand Theft Auto III, released on October 2001, was rumored to allow players to hijack commercial planes at the airport. However, since the game was set in a city loosely based on New York City, developers considered it inappropriate and removed this aspect from the final version. Additionally, the paint scheme of the city's police cars was also changed from a blue-and-white NYPD design to a black-and-white LAPD design during game development.

The video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released as scheduled in November 2001 despite the plot centering around terrorists in New York City and a scene in which a giant battleship crashes into Federal Hall; however, a scene in which Arsenal Gear, a futuristic mobile fortress, destroys the Statue of Liberty and half of Manhattan was removed, as was live-action footage of the Twin Towers originally slated to be used in the ending.

Microsoft removed the World Trade Center from Microsoft Flight Simulator beginning with the 2002 edition. Also, Microsoft removed Crash Damage from the games. That meant that when a plane crashed, it did not catch alight.

The 2000 computer game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, depicting an alternate history where the Soviet Union launches an invasion of the United States, changed its box art after the attacks. The original art was a fold-out cover. The inside depicted the New York skyline on fire including a ruined Twin Towers with flames and smoke emitting out. The cover depicted a Soviet soldier who was wearing an eyepiece with crosshairs on the American flag. The altered cover merely depicted the Soviet soldier wearing the eyepiece with crosshairs on a nuclear bomb explosion. The release of its 2001 expansion pack, Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, was postponed because of this. Controversial in-game levels, including ones where players had to destroy the Pentagon and attack the World Trade Center area, were not changed, however the landmarks and level names like "Operation: Big Apple" were no longer mentioned in walkthroughs on the game's website.

The Sega Dreamcast game Propeller Arena was canceled. It was an air combat game which featured modern-day dog fighting with planes in cities that had skyscraper buildings. A leaked and incomplete version has since made it to the Internet.

The PlayStation 2 game Shinobi originally had a scene in which the main character jumps out of a helicopter and sticks his sword into the side of a skyscraper to slow his fall. When this character hit the ground, the building was supposed to shatter. The scene was removed.

The PlayStation game Syphon Filter 3 had its cover art changed before release. It originally had Gabe Logan, viewed from an angle, pointing a gun at the camera with a look of anger while Lian swung into frame guns ablazing. The American flag was prominently displayed as well. It was changed to a generic head-view of Gabe and Lian looking serious. A level in the game that takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan (albeit in the 1980s when it was under Soviet occupation) remained.

The PlayStation game Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro had its final level changed. Originally it was a showdown between Spider-Man and Electro atop the World Trade Center. This was changed to the top of another generic skyscraper. The New York City skyline was also obscured by a storm so that the World Trade Center was not visible.

Recorded music

Slayer's album God Hates Us All was incidentally released on September 11, 2001. In a foreboding fashion, it contained lyrics such as "terrorist, pacifist targeting the next mark." To market the album, faux concert tickets were distributed stating, "Slayer, God Hates Us All, September 11, 2001."

New Zealand heavy metal band Shihad renamed themselves to "Remote", and then "Pacifier", concerned that their name could be mistaken for the word "jihad". Ironically "Shihad" was chosen after members of the band misheard "jihad" as "shihad" in the 1984 David Lynch movie, Dune. The band went back from Pacifier to Shihad in 2004.

The album Party Music by political hip-hop group The Coup was released later than originally intended and with different cover art. The original cover art, designed in June 2001, featured the twin towers exploding and on fire in a very realistic way much like the September 11 attacks (very strangely, the cover art depicted the explosion of the North Tower near the top and slightly higher than the South Tower, which later was exactly what happened). The cover art was changed to a hand holding a martini glass with flames coming out of the top of the glass, and the release date was delayed until November.

Dave Matthews Band's third single from their hit Everyday album was intended to be "When the World Ends" in the fall 2001. Due to the lyrics and subject matter of the song, they instead chose the upbeat "Everyday" as the post-9/11 single.

Bush changed their single's title from "Speed Kills" to "The People That We Love", while the cover to their new album - Golden State - was changed from a photograph depicting the shadow of an airplane on the ground to a plain gold cover.

The Strokes' debut album Is This It originally contained a track entitled "New York City Cops", with a chorus of "New York City cops/They ain't too smart." With the album's release only two weeks after the attacks, the track was replaced by "When It Started" on American pressings. The version of the album released internationally went unaltered.

System of a Down's second album, Toxicity, was released on September 4, 2001, one week before the attacks. The first single from the album, "Chop Suey!", featured the lyrics, "Trust in my self righteous suicide." This earned them a fair amount of controversy, which wasn't aided by the fact that all four members are of Armenian heritage. The lead member, Serj Tankian, also wrote a poem two days after the attacks, which was misinterpreted as justification for the attacks. The album went to Number 1 on September 11.

The ska-punk band Leftöver Crack released their album Mediocre Generica on September 11, 2001. The original title of the album, changed shortly before its release, was Fuck World Trade. An album by that name was later released by the band in 2004.

The Eagles were supposed to record on September 11, 2001, but decided against it out of respect for those who suffered. Instead they wrote the song "Hole In The World". Ironically, drummer Don Henley had written "New York Minute" years before which some could interpret as describing the effects of September 11, 2001, (with lyrics such as "one day they're here, next day they're gone".

British electro-rock group Primal Scream had a track called "Bomb The Pentagon" which they started playing live in September 2001. When the track was subsequently released on the album Evil Heat in 2002, the title of the song was changed to "Rise" and minor alterations were made to the lyrics.

Jay-Z album The Blueprint was scheduled for September 18, but to combat bootlegging, it was pushed forward one week. Despite being overshadowed by the attacks, the album eventually went double-platinum, and sales stand at more than 2.3 million copies in the US, becoming his fourth consecutive album to hit #1 on the Billboard 200. Jay would later boast, "Rumor has it, The Blueprint classic/Couldn't even be stopped by bin Laden" on the track "The Bounce" from his follow-up album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse.

In honor of the attacks, Billy Joel kept the original lyrics of the song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" while performing it during the post-9/11 The Concert for New York City. Some eerily accurate lyrics from the 1976 song include: "I saw the Empire State laid low," "I saw the ruins at my feet", "I watched the mighty skyline fall," and "Sank Manhattan out at sea."

The band I Am The World Trade Center released their debut album Out of the Loop on July 17, 2001. The eleventh track on the album was named "September." I Am the World Trade Center faced some media attention by critics who assumed that the band was capitalizing on the attacks. They toured briefly under the shortened name "I Am the World...", but soon resumed playing under their original name.

The Enya song "Only Time", first released in 2000, gained renewed popularity in the wake of the attacks when numerous television broadcasters played it over retrospective footage of the attacks and the aftermath. This led to many unauthorized remixes of the song (using sound and speech from news coverage of the attacks) being made available over the Internet and played on radio stations. Enya eventually subsequently released a new remix of "Only Time" (sans sound effects) as a fund-raiser for the families of 9/11 victims.

British rock group Feeder had to re-record their video for their 2001 single "Piece By Piece" as it depicted computer animations of the band jumping out of New York skyscrapers. The video was later changed to the band in a London subway.

British pop singer George Michael who was recording his anti-Tony Blair single "Shoot The Dog" on the very same day of the September 11 attacks had to amend the song lyrics appropriately. However, it still retained the lyrics "Nine nine nine gettin' jiggy, People did you see that fire in the city" as a reference to the WTC attacks.

Pat Benatar was scheduled to perform on September 11th, 2001. After discussing whether to go ahead with the concert or not, it was decided to perform. The song "Invincible" took on an entirely new meaning with its lyrics, "We can't afford to be innocent/Stand up and face the enemy/It's a do or die situation/We will be Invincible".

Both the soundtrack for the Mariah Carey film Glitter and the film itself were released on September 11, 2001. They were considered a critical and commercial failure.